From early morning to late night - Cathy at PAC conference Manly

Cathy teaches the Advanced Paediatric Life Support (APLS) course to health professionals a few times per year. Their annual Instructor's day and Paediatric Acute Care(PAC) conference was held this year in Manly, Sydney.

Cathy was up early for a run along the beach before lectures began.

Cathy, Justine and Freya had to keep the party going as Shahn, Michelle and some of the other partygoers didn't make it this year! It was a great conference and now Cathy can go on annual leave - hooray!

All in a day's work - Children's Week 2014

Cathy was racing from one meeting to another all day and preparing to go to the PAC conference, but she managed to get to the ward in time to meet "Hawka", our Hawthorn mascot and hold the premiership trophies. She even packed her premiership T-shirt to wear in the shots. Very exciting to welcome the premiership cups to Monash Children's ward for Children's week.

Leaving Rio Thursday 9th October 2014

I've survived Rio! I was so nervous about travelling alone to a country where one hears about violence and personal attacks, but I have had a great time. I have seen some sights, caught up with a past work and netball colleague and participated in the ISQua conference. It was different to paediatric conferences and took a bit to adjust to, but was really quite powerful in motivating me to promote patient safety, person-centred care and create robust systems to implement in healthcare. I have also taken some time to reflect on the year gone by and the challenges ahead. It's been good to get away from the day to day "busyness" that is all consuming and have time to think. OK, I confess to a bit of shoe-shopping and sun-baking too! The Brazilians have been very friendly. I have also mixed with delegates from all over the world at the conference - an inspirational experience. Here I am pictured with Bernice, Kimberley(fromm Australia) and Sandra(from Holland).

The networking reception began badly with an experience of Brazilian traffic. It took 1 hour 20 minutes to go about 3 km in the bus to get to the venue so we were all thirsty for our Caparanaihas by the time we got there. These are a cocktail mix of fruit, sugar syrup, ice, rum and liqueur and are delicious. Lime was my favorite!

For my final night, I looked out from my balcony and saw the moon rising across Ipanema beach and had to snap a photo to share on the blog. Flying out at 2am is not my favorite travel time but hopefully I will sleep well. See you back in Melbourne in a couple of days!

Cathy's in Rio - October 2nd-10th

After two 14 hour flights with a short stopover in Dubai, Cathy made it to Rio and decided to try to find ways to fill in her days until the conference starts. It didn't take long to find the Sheraton lounge with the happy hour drinks and nibblies on day 1 so she was off to a good start.

After a long sleep, it was time for exercise but she wasn't sure how safe the streets were, so a run on the treadmill was the best alternative. After a delicious breakfast looking out over Ipanema beach, she decided to check if it was safe to walk down there. "But that will take you half an hour!" was the reply. It was quite safe though and pleasant to be outdoors. It wasn't far to the Leblon Shopping centre so a little look at some shops was the next activity. Most prices are more expensive here, but you have to buy your Havainas in Rio so I bought a pair of Brazilian ones.

After all that walking, a pampering in the Shine Spa salon was necessary for a body scrub and massage. It was great - even if I don't think I quite understood many of the instructions the girl gave me! She had to come looking for me at one point when I thought I was supposed to go to the sauna but she indicated the shower instead.

With less traffic on a Saturday, it was the best time for a tour. "Rio by Day" took me to visit the street where "Carnivale" begins and encouraged a bit of dressing up in costumes.

The next stop was the Catholic Cathedral shaped like an upside down ice cream cone. The stained glass was interesting though. There must have been a recent visit from the pope and they had pictures of the various nationalities who had visited. I was interested in the modern multicultural Aussie representatives!

Next stop was Sugarloaf mountain where we rode cable cars to the top and took in the sights over Copacabana Beach, Ipanema Beach, the city, Corcovado mountain in the distance and even saw some squirrel monkeys.

After lunch in Ipanema, we finally headed up to Tijuca Forest by rail car and climbed to see the iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado mountain.

I had to pose like everyone else wth my arms outstretched. It was pretty cool by late afternoon and rain threatened, but fortunately we got home safely and I warmed up with a glass of champagne and some nibblies again. Too tired for anything else, I have just downloaded the photos and created this blog post for you to enjoy.